Download or read book Gulf of Mexico Regional Ecosystem Restoration Strategy written by Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Gulf of Mexico Regional Ecosystem Restoration Strategy written by Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Many of the Gulf's challenges are complex and long-standing, and correcting the problems will require sustained and consistent effort over time. The Task Force's Strategy was developed through a review of existing plans and efforts and significant public outreach during the last year. The Strategy builds on ongoing work and priorities of each of the Gulf Coast states, local communities, federal partners, academics and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The restoration framework consists of four overarching goals to guide the collective actions at the local, state and federal level that are necessary to reverse the ongoing decline and restore the Gulf Coast's ecosystem. The Task Force's goals for the Gulf Coast restoration effort are the following: 1. Restore and conserve habitat 2. Restore water quality 3. Replenish and protect living coastal and marine resources 4. Enhance community resilience The Strategy includes enhanced community resilience as a goal in order to highlight the connectedness of ecosystem restoration with the well-being and sustainability of coastal communities. This goal also emphasizes the planning and technical assistance needs of vulnerable coastal communities as they assess risks, plan for and rebound from natural disasters, and implement sustainable development approaches. As progress is made to improve water quality and protect and enhance the Gulf of Mexico's habitats and resources, communities benefit from improved ecosystem services, such as better storm protection and healthier fisheries. A key function of the Task Force is to help advance state and federal activities that will achieve the overarching restoration goals. The Task Force intends to help member agencies address process and other barriers, facilitate program implementation and alignment, and better leverage scientific expertise and fiscal resources in support of Gulf Coast restoration. In addition to encouraging better collaboration among state and federal agencies, partnerships play an integral role in restoring ecosystem functions throughout the Gulf region. The Task Force believes it is critically important to foster an inclusive dialogue and expand on public/private partnerships in order to achieve ecosystem restoration in the Gulf of Mexico ..."--Executive summary p. 6.

Download or read book Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Strategy and Long term Recovery Plan written by Bradley F. Brown and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was one of the worst man-made environmental disasters our country has ever experienced. The oil spill dramatically affected the lives, jobs, and futures of millions of Gulf Coast residents. The Gulf of Mexico is a natural resource of vital importance which provides immeasurable benefits and services to citizens throughout the United States. The Gulf is also critical to nation-wide commerce. This book examines the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Strategy and Long Term Recovery Plan with a focus on facilitating long-term vitality through restoring and conserving habitat, restoring water quality, replenishing and protecting living coastal and marine resources, and on making the Gulf of Mexico a healthier and more resilient place for the communities that depend on its wealth of resources.

Download or read book Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Strategy and Long term Recovery Plan written by Bradley F. Brown and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was one of the worst man-made environmental disasters our country has ever experienced. The oil spill dramatically affected the lives, jobs, and futures of millions of Gulf Coast residents. The Gulf of Mexico is a natural resource of vital importance which provides immeasurable benefits and services to citizens throughout the United States. The Gulf is also critical to nation-wide commerce. This book examines the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Strategy and Long Term Recovery Plan with a focus on facilitating long-term vitality through restoring and conserving habitat, restoring water quality, replenishing and protecting living coastal and marine resources, and on making the Gulf of Mexico a healthier and more resilient place for the communities that depend on its wealth of resources.

Download or read book Revisiting the RESTORE Act written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Gulf Restoration written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book An Approach for Assessing U S Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by . This book was released on 2022-12-31 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Valued for its ecological richness and economic value, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico is under substantial pressure from human activities. The Deepwater Horizon platform explosion and oil spill significantly damaged Gulf ecosystems and led to the largest ecological restoration investment in history. The unprecedented number and diversity of restoration activities provide valuable information for future restoration efforts, but assessment efforts are hampered by many factors, including the need to evaluate the interaction of multiple stressors and consider long-term environmental trends such as sea level rise, increasing hurricane intensity, and rising water temperatures. This report offers a comprehensive approach to assess restoration activities beyond the project scale in the face of a changing environment. A main component of this approach is using different types of scientific evidence to develop "multiple lines of evidence" to evaluate restoration efforts at regional scales and beyond, especially for projects that may be mutually reinforcing (synergistic) or in conflict (antagonistic). Because Gulf of Mexico ecosystems cross political boundaries, increased coordination and collaboration is needed, especially to develop standardized data collection, analysis, synthesis, and reporting. With these improvements, program-level adaptive management approaches can be used more effectively to assess restoration strategies against the backdrop of long-term environmental trends.

Download or read book A Strategy for a Healthy Gulf of Mexico written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) is vital to our Nation and our economy, providing valuable energy resources, abundant seafood, extraordinary beaches and recreational activities, and a rich cultural heritage. Even before the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill of 2010, the health and function of the Gulf ecosystems and economies have suffered from decades of significant human and natural stressors. The Gulf has experienced chronic loss of critical wetland habitats, erosion of barrier islands, imperiled fisheries, water quality degradation, impacts from invasive species, and substantial coastal land loss due to natural forces, the alteration of hydrology, and impacts from other human activities. In addition, the Gulf Coast region has endured repeated natural catastrophes, including major hurricanes such as Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a responsibility, driven by the agency's stewardship mandates, to help ensure the nation, including the Gulf, has a strong foundation of resilient ecosystems that sustain thriving marine and coastal resources, communities, and economies"--Page 1.

Download or read book Opportunities for the Gulf Research Program Monitoring Ecosystem Restoration and Deep Water Environments written by Gulf Research Program and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental monitoring in the Gulf of Mexico poses extensive challenges and significant opportunities. Multiple jurisdictions manage this biogeographically and culturally diverse region, whose monitoring programs tend to be project-specific by design and funding. As a result, these programs form more of a monitoring patchwork then a network. At the same time, the Gulf monitoring community faces a unique opportunity to organize and think differently about monitoring - including how best to allocate and manage the resources for this large marine ecosystem and its communities - as a result of the infusion of resources for environmental restoration and related activities after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Opportunities for the Gulf Research Program: Monitoring Ecosystem Restoration and Deep Water Environments summarizes a Gulf Research Program workshop held on September 3-4, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The workshop gathered about 40 participants from the energy industry, state and federal government, academia, and nongovernmental organizations to examine two broad issues that were seen as time-sensitive opportunities in light of significant investments in the Gulf for restoration and accelerating development of energy resources in the deep Gulf: monitoring ecosystem restoration and deep water environments. As participants explored potential opportunities for the Program to consider, they noted the essential role that communication and outreach play in successful monitoring, and the importance of applying an ecosystem service approach to monitoring, forging partnerships among stakeholders, and supporting efforts to organize and manage monitoring data.

Download or read book Initial Comprehensive Plan written by Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book An Ecosystem Services Approach to Assessing the Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2013-12-20 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the Gulf of Mexico recovers from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, natural resource managers face the challenge of understanding the impacts of the spill and setting priorities for restoration work. The full value of losses resulting from the spill cannot be captured, however, without consideration of changes in ecosystem services-the benefits delivered to society through natural processes. An Ecosystem Services Approach to Assessing the Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico discusses the benefits and challenges associated with using an ecosystem services approach to damage assessment, describing potential impacts of response technologies, exploring the role of resilience, and offering suggestions for areas of future research. This report illustrates how this approach might be applied to coastal wetlands, fisheries, marine mammals, and the deep sea-each of which provide key ecosystem services in the Gulf-and identifies substantial differences among these case studies. The report also discusses the suite of technologies used in the spill response, including burning, skimming, and chemical dispersants, and their possible long-term impacts on ecosystem services.

Download or read book Effective Monitoring to Evaluate Ecological Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-02-16 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gulf Coast communities and natural resources suffered extensive direct and indirect damage as a result of the largest accidental oil spill in US history, referred to as the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. Notably, natural resources affected by this major spill include wetlands, coastal beaches and barrier islands, coastal and marine wildlife, seagrass beds, oyster reefs, commercial fisheries, deep benthos, and coral reefs, among other habitats and species. Losses include an estimated 20% reduction in commercial fishery landings across the Gulf of Mexico and damage to as much as 1,100 linear miles of coastal salt marsh wetlands. This historic spill is being followed by a restoration effort unparalleled in complexity and magnitude in U.S. history. Legal settlements in the wake of DWH led to the establishment of a set of programs tasked with administering and supporting DWH-related restoration in the Gulf of Mexico. In order to ensure that restoration goals are met and money is well spent, restoration monitoring and evaluation should be an integral part of those programs. However, evaluations of past restoration efforts have shown that monitoring is often inadequate or even absent. Effective Monitoring to Evaluate Ecological Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico identifies best practices for monitoring and evaluating restoration activities to improve the performance of restoration programs and increase the effectiveness and longevity of restoration projects. This report provides general guidance for restoration monitoring, assessment, and synthesis that can be applied to most ecological restoration supported by these major programs given their similarities in restoration goals. It also offers specific guidance for a subset of habitats and taxa to be restored in the Gulf including oyster reefs, tidal wetlands, and seagrass habitats, as well as a variety of birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals.

Download or read book Comprehensive Plan Update 2016 written by Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Phase I Early Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment written by U.S. Department of the Interior and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-03-06 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gulf of Mexico is a priceless national treasure. Its natural resources – water, fish, beaches, reefs, marshes, oil and gas – are the economic engine of the region. The Gulf of Mexico is likewise vitally important to the entire nation as a bountiful source of food, energy and recreation. The Gulf Coast's unique culture and natural beauty are world-renowned. There is no place like it anywhere else on Earth. On April 20, 2010 the eyes of the world focused on an oil platform in the Gulf, approximately 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The mobile drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, which was being used to drill an exploratory well for BP Exploration and Production, Inc. (BP), violently exploded, caught fire and eventually sank, tragically killing 11 workers. But that was only the beginning of the disaster. Oil and other substances from the rig and the well head immediately began flowing unabated approximately one mile below the surface. Initial efforts to cap the well were unsuccessful, and for 87 days oil spewed unabated into the Gulf. Oil eventually covered a vast area of thousands of square miles, and carried by the tides and currents reached the coast, polluting beaches, bays, estuaries and marshes from the Florida panhandle to west of the Mississippi River delta. At the height of the spill, approximately 37% of the open water in the Gulf was closed to fishing. Before the well was finally capped, an estimated 5 million barrels (210 million gallons) escaped from the well over a period of approximately 3 months. In addition, approximately 771,000 gallons of dispersants were applied to the waters of the spill area, both on the surface and at the well head one mile below. It was an environmental disaster of unprecedented proportions. It also was a devastating blow to the resource-dependent economy of the region. While the extent of natural resources impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and response (collectively, “the Spill”) is not yet fully evaluated, impacts were widespread and extensive. The full spectrum of the impacts from this spill, given its magnitude, duration, depth and complexity, will be difficult to determine. The trustees for the Spill, however, are working to assess every aspect of the injury, both to individual resources and lost recreational use of them, as well as the cumulative impacts of the Spill. Affected natural resources include ecologically, recreationally, and commercially important species and their habitats across a wide swath of the coastal areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, and a huge area of open water in the Gulf of Mexico. When injuries to migratory species such as birds, whales, tuna and turtles are considered, the impacts of the Spill could be felt across the United States and around the globe. This ERP/EA serves as the Trustees' final selection of Phase I early restoration projects, taking into account the suite of potential projects proposed, the NRDA and Framework Agreement process, and public comment on the Draft Phase I ERP/EA. Per the Framework Agreement, the Trustees will move forward with agreements with BP to fund projects and commence implementation, as described in more detail throughout this document.

Download or read book The Gulf Research Program written by Gulf Research Program and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2010 the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire in the Gulf of Mexico caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, resulting in significant impacts on the region\'s environment and residents. Legal settlements with the companies held responsible led the federal government to ask the National Academy of Sciences to form and administer a 30-year program to enhance oil system safety, human health, and environmental resources in the Gulf of Mexico and other U.S. continental shelf areas where offshore oil and gas exploration and production occur or are under consideration. The new Gulf Research Program will receive $500 million to support activities using three broad approaches: research and development, education and training, and environmental monitoring. The Gulf Research Program: A Strategic Vision establishes the Program\'s foundation and introduces its mission, goals, and objectives. It describes some initial activities and sets out the Program\'s vision for contributing lasting benefit to the Gulf region and the nation. The Program is an extraordinary opportunity to foster science on a regional scale and over the long term. The document will be of interest to scientists, health professionals, engineers, and educators who wish to learn about, collaborate with, and submit proposals to the Program, and to all those who share the goal of enhancing resilience in areas where offshore energy production, vibrant communities, and dynamic ecosystems coexist.

Download or read book After the Storm written by Gwen Arnold and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book An Ecosystem Services Approach to Assessing the Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-01-20 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the Gulf of Mexico recovers from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, natural resource managers face the challenge of understanding the impacts of the spill and setting priorities for restoration work. The full value of losses resulting from the spill cannot be captured, however, without consideration of changes in ecosystem services-the benefits delivered to society through natural processes. An Ecosystem Services Approach to Assessing the Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico discusses the benefits and challenges associated with using an ecosystem services approach to damage assessment, describing potential impacts of response technologies, exploring the role of resilience, and offering suggestions for areas of future research. This report illustrates how this approach might be applied to coastal wetlands, fisheries, marine mammals, and the deep sea-each of which provide key ecosystem services in the Gulf-and identifies substantial differences among these case studies. The report also discusses the suite of technologies used in the spill response, including burning, skimming, and chemical dispersants, and their possible long-term impacts on ecosystem services.